As promised, Minister KT Rama Rao is walking the talk and taking the IT sector to the hitherto untapped cities of Telangana. The IT Towers being constructed in several tier-II cities in the state is a testament to the commitment of the KCR government to expand the IT industry across Telangana.
Right after the formation of the state, in addition to giving thrust and creating a global image for the thriving IT sector in Hyderabad, Telangana government also focussed on taking IT companies to new corridors. The result is the construction of state-of-the-art IT Towers with plug-and-play facilities in tier-II cities. The government’s efforts and Minister KTR’s leadership have attracted some top IT companies to open their firms in cities such as Warangal, Karimnagar and Khammam.
In minister KTR’s words, the government is marching ahead with the 3D mantra, that is to Decongest, Decarbonize and Decentralize and provide ample opportunities to the youth in cities other than Hyderabad. The Telangana government’s ICT policy (2021-26) with a five-year road map, targets to create 50,000 IT jobs by 2026 from regions around tier-2 and tier-3 cities in the state.
After 2014, IT Towers were thrown open in the cities of Warangal, Karimnagar, Khammam and Mahabubnagar. While the IT Tower in Siddipet will be inaugurated soon, towers in Nizamabad and Nalgonda are in various stages of construction. Also, the government has sanctioned an IT Tower in Adilabad a few months back. Nearly 20,000 people are currently employed directly and indirectly by the IT Towers in Warangal, Karimnagar, and Khammam. And it is anticipated that more than 50,000 people will be employed by the five new IT Towers to be opened soon.
Among these, Warangal IT Corridor already houses top companies such as Cyient and Tech Mahindra. And recently minister KTR inaugurated offices of four new companies namely Genpact, LTI Mindtree, HRH Next Hired and Hexad Solutions in Warangal. Genpact hired 400 associates, LTI Mindtree hired over 60 associates, HRH Next hired 120 and Hexad Solutions Group hired over 50 associates from the local colleges. The HRH Next Planning has plans to increase its strength to over 500 in the coming months. Also, IT companies such as Net Vision, Jolan Tech, Vision Tech, Amidai Edutech, Fixity Technologies and Innosol have agreed to operate from the Siddipet IT Tower.
Other than promoting the IT industry in tier-II cities for the benefit of rural and semi-urban youth, the IT ministry under minister KTR also came up with policies such as GRID (Growth in Dispersion) and LEAP (Look East Policy). The policies incentivise IT companies to look beyond the western fringes of Hyderabad and thereby decongest the city and encourage decentralization.
All these policy frameworks and concrete steps have led to an unstoppable growth of IT and ITES industries in the state. In 2022–2023, Hyderabad’s exports are predicted to reach 2.2 lakh crore, an increase of about 20 per cent from 1.83 lakh crore. And, over 1.5 lakh new jobs were created in the IT sector in 2021–2022.
Overall, during 2014-15, the IT exports from Telangana were worth Rs. 66,276 crores which almost tripled to Rs. 1,83,569 crore by 2021-22. The Compound Annual Growth Rate in IT exports during this period was 15.67%. And IT exports have a growth rate of 26.14% between 2020-21 and 2021-22 and 12.98% between 2019-20 and 2020-21.
Some salient features of various IT Towers in Telangana:
Karimnagar IT Tower
- 80,000 square feet area
- 18 companies are being operated
- 550 people employed
Khammam IT Tower
- 55,000 square feet area
- 19 companies are being operated
- 430 people employed
- Established with a budget of Rs. 27 crores (phase-I) and Rs. 36 crores (phase-II)
Mahabubnagar IT Tower
- 60,000 square feet area
- Rs. 40 crores budget
- Spread in 4 acres of land
- Eight companies are ready to operate
Siddipet IT Tower (To be inaugurated)
- 1,21,000 square feet area
- Constructed with 1,200 seats
Nizamabad IT Tower (To be inaugurated)
- 50,000 square feet area
- More than 500 seats
Nalgonda IT Tower (To be inaugurated)
- Under construction with 1000 seats
Adilabad IT Tower (To be inaugurated)
- 48,000 square feet area
- Rs. 40 crores budget
- Spread in 3 acres of land
By: Mythreya Kodakandla